Free Republic

A snifter clink to Michael Cembalest of JP Morgan for his study of Cabinet Secretaries: State; Commerce; Treasury; Agriculture; Interior; Labor; Transportation; Energy and Housing & Urban Development. It puts flesh on that which we all know: Barak “Chicago” Obama sees business as a cash cow to keep the corruption machine oiled. After all, how could Michelle have been paid north of 300k a year for a part time gig at a hospital without some help? And this was before she was proud to be an American!!!! Sinatra could have been singing “Chicago, Chicago, My Kind of Town,” to the...

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama's second choice for transportation security chief has withdrawn from consideration because of questions over his background as a defense contractor. Retired Army Maj. Gen. Robert Harding took himself out of the running Friday night as head of the Transportation Security Administration, another setback for Obama after his first choice withdrew in January. Harding said the distractions caused by his work as a defense contractor would not be good for the administration or the Homeland Security Department. The TSA is part of that department. Harding has extensive intelligence experience that Obama hoped to tap in shoring...

“They won’t be so opposed to it once they see what’s in it.” That’s the rationalization House leaders gave skittish Democrats to get them to walk the plank on Obamacare Sunday night. But one of the first things millions of Americans will “see” is an effective 40 percent tax hike on the over-the-counter medicines – from an antihistamine such as Claritin for allergies, pain relief medicine such as Tylenol or Excedrin, Pedialyte to prevent their kids from becoming dehydrated when they are sick, and even prenatal vitamins if they are expecting another one. All of these items have two things...

As part of the pre-State of the Union publicity blitz, the Obama White House had its cabinet members sit down for quickie videos to tell you how they all “got to work” and “took bold steps to rescue the country from a potential second Great Depression; to rebuild the economy for the long-term — so businesses can thrive, the middle class can grow and all our families can be more secure; and to restore America’s leadership in the world, as we wrestle with the global challenges of the 21st Century.” I’m including a few of my favorites from corruptocrat Eric...

KABUL (AFP) – Afghanistan's parliament showed its teeth Saturday by rejecting the majority of President Hamid Karzai's nominees for cabinet posts, state television showed. Of 24 nominees, only seven were approved in a secret ballot by more than 200 parliamentarians, in a process that appears to have undermined the president's authority. "Of the 24 nominees introduced to parliament, seven have succeeded in getting your vote of confidence," parliamentary speaker Mohammad Yunus Qanoni said after counting finished. The seven ministerial nominees who won approval included those who had been approved by Karzai's supporters in the international community as competent and clean...

In recalling President Obama's cabinet appointments, you'll notice that very few have had any private sector or business experience. To find out if this was a "change" from prior administrations, Michael Cembalest, Chief Investment Officer of JP Morgan Private Bank, did a study that examined the private sector experience of prior cabinet officials since 1900.

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Lebanon's new government Wednesday endorsed Hezbollah's right to keep its weapons, the latest sign that the group has no intention of meeting a U.N. resolution calling for it to disarm. Lebanon's government is a shaky coalition of Western-backed factions and the militant group Hezbollah, which has virtual veto power over the government. The group is believed to have thousands of rockets and missiles hidden in basements and bunkers throughout Shiite Muslim areas of the tiny country.

A friend sends along the following chart from a J.P. Morgan research report. It examines the prior private sector experience of the cabinet officials since 1900 that one might expect a president to turn to in seeking advice about helping the economy. It includes secretaries of State, Commerce, Treasury, Agriculture, Interior, Labor, Transportation, Energy, and Housing & Urban Development, and excludes Postmaster General, Navy, War, Health, Education & Welfare, Veterans Affairs, and Homeland Security—432 cabinet members in all. When one considers that public sector employment has ranged since the 1950s at between 15 percent and 19 percent of the population,...

Help Wanted, No Private Sector Experience RequiredBy Nick Schulz November 25, 2009, 8:19 am A friend sends along the following chart from a J.P. Morgan research report. It examines the prior private sector experience of the cabinet officials since 1900 that one might expect a president to turn to in seeking advice about helping the economy. It includes secretaries of State, Commerce, Treasury, Agriculture, Interior, Labor, Transportation, Energy, and Housing & Urban Development, and excludes Postmaster General, Navy, War, Health, Education & Welfare, Veterans Affairs, and Homeland Security—432 cabinet members in all. Rest of Article Here

Ibrahim Didi, right, the minister of fisheries and agriculture in the Maldives, signs a document calling on all countries to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions ahead of a major climate change conference in December. (Mohammed Seeneen/Associated Press) Cabinet ministers in the Maldives held an underwater meeting Saturday to draw attention to the threat global warming poses to the lowest-lying nation on earth. President Mohammed Nasheed and members of his cabinet wore scuba gear as they arrived for the meeting in a lagoon off the island of Girifushi. They sat at a table anchored to the sand on the floor of...

The Van Jones story isn't about another radical federal employee or even about President Obama's addiction to executive authority (he has appointed over 30 czars with whom he meets regularly, but he has held just one cabinet meeting since his inauguration). The Van Jones story is about our president: a man who fills the void in his emotional past with "authentic" black men who have no interior struggle for definition. President Obama has incessantly injected himself into racial matters that require no clarification (see Henry Louis Gates Jr.); he has turned every debate into a racial debate (see his 2008...

Since Congress passed President Barack Obama’s $787 billion economic stimulus bill in February, administration officials have traveled to at least 66 events across the country to tout the massive spending program or hand out stimulus cash to grateful local officials. But a POLITICO examination of the travel reveals a distinctly political trend line: Top officials have hosted events predominantly in states that Obama won in 2008. What’s more, the examination revealed that Obama officials all but avoided Southern states that Obama lost. It is not unusual for a presidential administration to find ways to reward its supporters through federal largesse,...

Who would have thought that after almost a hundred days, it would be Hillary Clinton that would be one of Obama's least controversial advisors? Of course, a cabinet, once referred to by the mainstream as a supreme collection of professionals, has turned into nothing short of a motley crue of misfits, criminals, and incompetents. In fact, the last of problematic cabinet choices is so large that I know that I will forget many important missteps in Obama's cabinet.

And it’s not a twister, Auntie Em. Kathleen Sebelius left her job as governor of Kansas to take a Cabinet position as Secretary of Health and Human Services in Barack Obama’s administration, but she left unfinished business behind. The Kansas City Star reports that legislators want to know how a Sebelius-tied charity wound up with an increase in government funding — while they spent $400,000 building a horse ranch:

March 15) - Another conspiracy theory surrounding President Barack Obama is making the rounds, according to Politico.com The latest one contends that many top officials in Obama's administration are involved in a clandestine global cabal bent on creating a one-world government that supersedes the United States. For decades, conspiracy theorists have viewed the Bilderberg group, an international organization made up of political, financial, academic and military heavyweights that comes together annually to discuss world affairs, as similar to the Trilateral Commission or the Council on Foreign Relations -- two groups comprised of influential movers and shakers who, some say, control...

The best way judge a person is by the company he keeps. But President Obama is having trouble keeping any company at all. Recently his Cabinet nominees have been dropping like flies - Sanjay Gupta's withdrawal from the surgeon general slot on Thursday brought the number of botched high-level candidates to seven. "He's having a lot of trouble getting nominations pushed through," says Paul Light, professor of Public Service at NYU's Wagner School. "He's falling behind Bush and Clinton in his number of confirmed candidates in the first 100 days. He can't afford another one." Here, a rogue's gallery at...

What is with all of these people "withdrawing" from Obama's cabinet positions? Well, three possibilities. First, they know this is a sinking ship on the way to the murky depths of socialism. Second, they are crooked, and scared to be exposed in the vetting process. And third, both the first and second reason. Geithner's choice for deputy withdraws from consideration... Gupta withdraws from consideration for surgeon general... President faces tough question over Cabinet picks... Third Obama cabinet nominee withdraws name Reuters Republican Gregg withdraws from commerce post consideration - CNN.com Gupta Withdraws Name for Surgeon General More tax problems for...

With all his problems hanging onto cabinet appointments, and maintaining a consistent message from day to day, let alone with his actions, it's no wonder that only a month in the Democrats are "Hot N Cold". This production was prepared for the 2009 Buchanan County (MO) Lincoln Day Dinner held on Feb. 28, 2009.

Add former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk to the list of Obama Cabinet picks with tax problems. The Senate Finance Committee says he underpaid by $9,975 in the last three years. Senate aides uncovered the shortfall during weeks of vetting, and Kirk – the administration’s designated point person on trade -- has promised to pay the Internal Revenue Service in full. The problems: Kirk deducted too much for season tickets to the Dallas Mavericks and too much for tax preparation fees, and failed to report as income speaking fees that he donated to his alma mater, Austin College. The full political...

On Wednesday, Vice President Joe Biden met with members of President Barack Obama’s Cabinet to discuss the first steps necessary in getting money from the stimulus package to the aid of the American people. In President Obama’s speech on Tuesday evening, he addressed the arduous task facing the recovery team, but said that “nobody messes with Joe,” speaking of Vice President Biden, as a reason he had put Biden in charge of the recovery plan. Wednesday, Biden said that the stimulus package is meant to “drop-kick" the economy out of recession, and addressed the need for getting money distributed quickly....